Just Do It

Nikey hit it right on the money with their slogan "Just Do It".  I'm sure its meaning was pertained to athleticism and the ability to get up and just do your thang.  For me this slogan means much more than playing sports.  In my world Just Do It means do whatever "it" is and JUST DO IT!

When starting your businesses so many levels of self-doubt, procrastination, what ifs, I don't have the time, I don't have the money, etc. always seem to set in.  If we spent as much time creating our business as we do doubting ourselves, we would be Billionaires.  Sometimes in order to be successful and live your dream you HAVE to throw caution to the wind and JUST DO IT!

We all have some initiatives that we can personally say screw it and Just DO IT! Remember if you never DO IT, you'll never KNOW what potential you have and what you can BECOME! 

Here some examples of common procrastinations:

1)Where do I Start? - Do I form a Business Plan? Do I Register my Business Name? Where? How much does it cost? Are there licenses involved? Am I a product or a service? Write down the concept of your business and google the rest.  Stop asking yourself a 1000 questions and JUST DO IT!!!

2) Website - Do I create one? Do I use Go Daddy, Office Live? Do I search for external templates? Do I hire a designer? How many domain extensions should I choose? Do I secure a domain for 1 or 2 years? Guess what, JUST DO IT! Get on a site you feel comfortable with and start playing with it, if you don't like the results move on to another one.  If you do NOTHING, NOTHING will be done and asking yourself these questions over and over again does not constitute as doing something! It's just wasting time doing NOTHING!

3) I'm too busy with my 9-5 to even start my business, classic excuse!  One thing we need to remember is when the idea popped into our head to start a business the main basis for this idea was most of us were SICK with our 9-5.  Starting a business does mean hard work, but it also means independence and if we're lucky it could place us in a lucrative financial position.  Take a good look at your 9-5; how long have you been doing it?; are you efficient?; can you do this work in  your sleep?; does it bore you?; do you get up in the morning ecstatic about going to work?; are you smarter than your boss?  The answers alone are the main reasons why you want to start your own business.  Keep looking at the big picture! If you're efficient at work, do what you have to do, get your work done,* after-all it is paying your bills for now and financing your business.  But once your done with work and still on the premises, you should consider using the rest of your day wisely.  When I say wisely I mean on YOU!!  Stop going to Facebook (though I love Facebook :)) and My Space, googling celebrities and reading all the news that you have all day and night to see and hear about. Do you realize all the time we waste on simple internet BS; when we could be taking that time and working on our business!  A good strategy to use when you find yourself wasting time is think to yourself, the creators of Facebook and My Space are already rich, celebrities that's another world!  Just keep that in mind when you're googling what Brad and Angelina are doing in their summer home in Nice and know that you are wasting time and delaying your own summer home.  When free time opportunities at work exist, guess what, JUST DO IT!!

At the end of the day whatever "it" is that you do, you should always check your list and think twice like Santa, but at least you're doing IT!  

I like to end this article with a quote from Robert Fritz "If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.

*Tip - Efficiency is one of the greatest traits we can have, however, it can play against us at times.  Your boss may recognize this efficiency and bombard you with work, be careful, pace yourself, you're not in a race.  Get your work done in its timely fashion and learn to stretch some things out.  I know to some this may sound tricky and deceitful and IT IS! But guess what the days before computers and our current days of fictions deadlines are reasons enough to just chill for a minute, the work ain't going anywhere.  Keep your eye on the prize.  Personally I rather have an Entrepreneur of the Year Award than an Employee of the Month Award, get my drift!

Mi Casa Es Su Casa....Oh really??

Once again its that time of the year when the task of spring cleaning comes upon us. We tend to gravitate with the cleaning of our closets, junk draws, regular draws and all other clutter we tend to collect throughout the cuddly winter season. Spring cleaning gives us an excuse to have a renewed sense of calmness and order. While most of the focus given to this seasonal chore is directed to mainly our households, we tend to forget other areas of living that we need to declutter as well. No, I'm not talking about the 2nd home, though I'm sure we all would like to have one and one day as we prosper in to Mogulette land we will :)! But for once let's be real about what many of us have considered our second home, WORK, THE JOB!!!


Yes, yes, ladies, while we may all grunt and say it's just a job, many of us have to admit we've treated the work place at least from a decorative perspective as our second home. Personal pictures, art work, a shoe collection, ya'll know who you are, acting like you have DSW up in there! The workplace for some of us has been transformed into an additional living quarter. I can understand the need for some personal items, afterall we're at work at least 8 hours of a day, five days a week, however, we must ask ourselves do we intend to be here for the rest of our lives? Is it necessary to fill up a space that really doesn't belong to you? Yep, I said it, It doesn't belong to you, your nice little cubicle or office with doors is NOT your office. This space belongs to the ____________ (you can fill in the blank) Company. Fact of the matter is you're decorating or better yet personalizing a place that doesn't belong to you and if doesn't belong to you guess what it can be easily taken from you!


One of the things this recession has taught many of us is that some things don't last forever. As waves of employees are laid off the most obvious attribute is the famous box they walk out with. Or if you work for a financial institution and some other places you can't even get to your box, you have to wait till they ship it and some may even deduct the shipping cost from your last paycheck. The truth of the matter is we SHOULDN'T even have a box. Why in the world do we make our job our second home?? When you look a the temporariness of it all, it's not necessary to permanently stake your claim. A job should be viewed as a hotel stay. You go in, do what you got to do and go home. None of this design challenge HGTV bull crap. Another reason why we should NEVER make a job our home is because adding all of these touches stifle us into moving forward. Think about all the devotion you apply to making this place of employment feel like home. In some sick way we can be unintentionally sending the signal that this is it for us, this is where we belong; if so then why are we complaining and why do we want our own business? For those of us who truly seek entrepreneurship we have to remember that one of the first steps to seeking success is commitment. We have to become committed and loyal to our endeavors. A job will pay the bills but your own business can take care of you and your family for life. Your loyalty should reside with your dreams not with your employer who can fire you whenever they feel fit.


Please don't get me wrong I'm not saying become a hostile employee. I'm just saying focus your energies on where you need them the most. Making your job your next home should not be one of them. I use to think I needed a picture of my daughter in my office, guess what I have a wallet and her picture is in there. I doubt 8 hours a day will make me forget what she looks like, if so I have bigger issues to contend with.


Ladies going forward let's be serious about who we are and where we want to go! The only design challenge you should be facing is designing and strategizing your business. Everything else in this realm is secondary. So please no more homes away from home, soon enough you'll have that real 2nd home away from home!!